It might not look like it now, but Xmotoball Paintball and Motocross is hoping to become an extreme sports one-stop playground.

"We want to build zip lines, rock walls for climbing, and a better motocross track," said Gabriel Gaytan, owner of the complex. "We still have a long way to go but it's a start."

As it stands now, Xmotoball consists of three paintball fields and a more than a mile-long dirt motocross track hidden in the desert of Montana Vista in far East El Paso County.

"The original track was a pretty good one, we just wanted to make it bigger so we took a year off to work on it," Gaytan said. "We've had motocross racing for the past three years but we wanted to make sure the improvements to the track got done this year."

The track improvements include widening the lanes, making the turns wider and the installation of new gates for the riders at the starting line.

"The riders wanted more modern gates like the big tracks all over the United States, like they have at the Loretta Lynns," Gaytan said. "People want better things on this track so I took a year to save the money to get new gates and getting new plumbing."

Xmotoball attracts riders from Chihuahua, Santa Fe and Silver City.

"We don't give enough prize money to get the pros down here, yet," Gaytan said. "In order to get the top pros we have to have a bigger payback and that takes more money."

Right now, the track is being used mostly for El Paso amateur riders.

"Sometimes the pro riders will come out use it to get themselves tuned up for the major out-of-town races," Gaytan said.

David Rodriquez, the manager at Xmotoball for a year and half, said the track increased in size from one mile to a mile and a half.

"This track is for the average rider who is looking for a place to have some fun," he said. "During the racing series, we have classes from beginner to pro, from the smallest bikes (50s) to the 450s. We get young kids to old guys who still want to feel young coming out."

Gaytan said when the track opened three years ago, track membership was at 65 riders and now that is up to 250.

"If you count the out-of-town guys, we have roughly 500 riders," he said. "Problem is, we only get about 200 riders to come to our events. Other tracks get 300 to 400 riders at every event."

He said he is considering having a two to three race series next month.

What has become popular at Xmotoball is the three paintball fields, including a turf field with a PSP inflatable bunker set.

"The vibe here is cool," said Dan Schobner, a 20-year-old paintball player, "It's a lot laid back and the competition is really friendly, that's why I keep on coming out here."

Schobner, who has been playing for a year and a half, travels to San Antonio, Phoenix and other cities to compete.

"The other fields in the city are fun to play on but I love playing on that turf," he said.

Gaytan said he is happy the paintball side of the complex is doing so well.

"We have competitive speedball tournaments that attracts people from all over the region," he said. "We are one of the first complexes in El Paso to have turf. People who spend $2,000 on equipment don't want to play on dirt."

Speedball is one of the three games played in paintball,

In speedball, the playing field is composed of bunkers, of the same location and number on each side of the field, that provide an equal playing field for each team competing. It was created in this way to give a better format for competitive paintball, both in playing and watching the game.

"We have payouts at our paintball tournaments," he said. "We have teams coming out here to practice on an official PSP, with turf, field. They like to practice so they can get a feel and an understanding of the terrain, how it feels, how it slides, so when they go out of town, they are used to it."

The complete extreme sports complex is still years away, but Gaytan said he likes the direction it's going.

"It's going to be a fun spot for extreme sports," he said. "We are trying to get it all done as soon as we can but it takes time and money. It looks like its going to work here."

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